Design and Fabrication of Prototype Solar

Air Heater For drying Chickoo/Fruit flakes

Presented by: Guided by:

Mr. Sachin Chorge [EU1135010] Mr. Shivaji Shelar
Mr. Avin Lopez [EU1135050] (M . TECH)
Mr. Aldrin Calvin [EU2135051]
Mr. Subin Abraham [EU1135114]
 CONTENTS
• Abstract • Experimental Setup
• Introduction • Experimental
• Aim and Objectives Evaluation
• Plan of Action • Results
• Principle Concept • Future Scope
• Components • References
• Design Analysis
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 ABSTRACT
• The Earth receives 174,000 terawatts (TW) of incoming solar radiation at the upper
atmosphere. Approximately 30% is reflected back to space while the rest is absorbed by
clouds, oceans and land masses. Most of the world's population lives in areas with
insulation levels of 150-300 watts/m², or 3.5-7.0 kWh/m² per day. To use some part of
that energy and to do experimental testing on a solar air heater of type single pass, double
flow, double glazing was fabricated, which is used as a dryer for Sapota/ chickoo fruit
flakes drying. This setup is based on single pass and double glaze for heat trap, Where
the absorber plate is made of Aluminium material for thermal convection and same
material is used for V-shaped fins for air pressure drop. Blower is used to force the air
from absorber plate to the glass chamber where 1kg of Sapota fruit is kept for drying.
The experimental evaluation was done in the month of April at the location of Palghar,
Maharashtra, India. The Solar air heater was kept at an angle 300 and facing towards
East.
• KEYWORDS-Spring Solar air heater, , Double glazing , double pass.

3
 INTRODUCTION
• What is solar air heater?
 Solar air heating is a solar thermal technology in which
the energy from the sun, insolation, is captured by an
absorbing medium and used to heat air.
Solar air heating is a renewable energy heating technology
used to heat or condition air for buildings or process heat
applications.

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History of solar air heater
 Solar heating systems have been in use for many years. Solar heat stored in iron
was used in 1877 as reported by Daniels and Duffie .The air blowing over the
heated iron was then used to heat a home.

 The first accredited SAH was designed and produced by E. Morse (an American)
in 1881.

 The year round performance of this SAHS was investigated thoroughly and
reported by many others, in 1963, 1964, 1976, and 1978.

 From different experimentation today we see our regular solar air heaters.

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Types of solar air heaters
Solar air heaters

Unglazed air Glazed air

collectors collectors

Air heaters Air heater

with non with porous
porous absorber
absorber plate plate

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Need of The Project
 Drying is one of the best methods to preserve food, as lots of food is wasted due
to poor storage condition.

 The industrial drying process requires lot of energy. And the quantity to be dried
is way more than the present capacity of the plants.

 It would be easier if the drying process can be done in the farm to reduce the
transport cost. Which intern can save lot of money.

 The solar air heaters are simple in design and easy for construction, also they
work great for drying purpose.

 A portable solar air heater and dryer plant can be used in the farms to make dry
rooms for the storage of grains produced on the farm. It will increase the shelf
life of the goods produced on the farm.
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AIM
• To investigate thermal performance of solar air heater.
• To investigate moisture removal from the fruits
OBJECTIVES
• The main objective of the project is to dry the Sapota/Chickoo
fruit in the time span of one day of Sunlight.
• To design solar air heater to achieve the output temperature of
60 – 750C for preservation of natural color and taste of the
dried Sapota/Chickoo fruit.

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 PLAN OF ACTION
Month JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH
Work
Selection of project
topic
Research on the
selected topic
Calculations for the
design
Analysis and selection
of different materials

Purchase of the
required materials
Fabrication of the
prototype of the solar
air heater
Fabrication and
testing of prototype

Testing of solar air

heater
Finalization of the
project

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 PRINCIPLE CONCEPT
• Absorption of the solar
radiation by a solid body
results in the body
heating up.
• Convection of heat from
the heated solid body to
the air as it passes over
the surface

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 DESIGN DESCRIPTION

Requirements :
1. Higher thermal efficiency.
2. Less complex design.
3. Flexibility.
4. Cheap in construction.
5. Affordable .

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 COMPONENTS
The main components of the solar air heater are as
follows:
1. Absorber plate.
2. Inner box.
3. Outer box.
4. Glazing or glass plate.
5. Insulation wall.
6. Inlet and outlet duct.
7. Blower.
8. Glass chamber [dryer] .

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 COMPONENTS
1. Absorber Plate:
The main part of the solar air
heater is the absorber plate,
as the heat absorption from
the incident radiation and
the convective heat transfer
is done by absorber plate.
The absorptivity of aluminum
is 0.85-0.95 when coated
with matte black paint. The Fig.1 Fabricated absorber plate
thickness of the plate is 0.7
mm.

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 COMPONENTS
2 . V-shaped Fins :
The v-shaped fins were selected to
achieve higher heat transfer rate. Fins
were fixed to the absorber plate with
the help of bolts and nuts. The
dimension of the v-shaped finis as
follows:
1.Total length of the open fin :450mm.
2.Hight of the fin : 30mm.
3.Angle between the two sides: 90.
4.Length of the v-shaped fin :300mm.
The material used for the fabrication of
the fin is 22 gauge aluminum sheet. Fig.2 V- shaped fin

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 COMPONENTS
3 Inner box :
The inner wooden box is used to make a fixed path for
the air to flow inside the air heater.
The inner box is made up of wood, since wood is a bad
conductor of heat. Also the fire point temperature of the
dry wood is above 300oC.
4 Outer box :
The outer box is made up of wood for the reasons
mentioned above. The outer box is used to prevent heat
loss. A sheet of insulation layer is provided between the
inner and the outer box.

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 COMPONENTS
4.Glazing or glass plate :
The glass plate is required to produce a greenhouse
effect inside the solar air heater for temperature rise.
5.Insulation wall :
The insulation wall is provided to minimize the total
heat loss from the side walls of the inner box and the
base of the inner box. As the temperature inside the
solar air heater increases the heat loss starts to
increase. To minimize this heat loss, insulation wall is
required.

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 COMPONENTS
6.Inlet and Outlet Duct :
Inlet and outlet duct is required to maintain a uniform
flow of air inside the air heater.
7.Blower or Exhaust fan :
Blower or exhaust fan is required to create a pressure
difference across the inlet and the outlet duct.
8. Glass chamber :
Glass chamber is used for the drying of the Sapota fruit.
The 5mm glass was selected for the construction of the
glass chamber. Glass was used to get the advantage of
natural drying in the combination of forced drying.

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 DESIGN ANALYSIS
1. Analysis details for the selection of fins:
For CFD analysis Ansys Workbench 15.0 was used. For analysis
the dimensions of the absorber plate are as follows:
1.Area of the absorber plate: 2*1m.
2.Distance between the glass and absorber plate: 30mm.
3.Distance between bottom surface and absorber : 30mm.
4.Height of roughness : 25-28mm.
5.Thickness of roughness : 5mm.
6.Thickness of absorber plate : 5mm.
7.Mass flow rate of the air considered : 1m/sec.

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 DESIGN ANALYSIS

Fig 3 the volume rendering for Fig 4 the volume rendering of

the temperature distribution velocity distribution
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 DESIGN ANALYSIS
2. Analysis details for the selection of fins:
For analysis the dimensions of the absorber plate are as
follows :
1.Area of the absorber plate:1840mm*1170mm.
2.Distance between the glass and absorber plate : 40mm
3.Height of roughness:30mm.
4.Thickness of roughness: 2mm.
5.Thickness of absorber plate: 2mm.
6.Mass flow rate of the air considered: 2m/sec.

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 Experimental Setup
• The experiments were performed several times in the
month of April for different reading at different times to
get precise results.
• The solar air heater was faced towards east at an angle
of 300. During the whole process the blower was
switched off for 5minutes after every 15 minutes cycle,
to protect the blower motor from overheating as the
blower selected was not build for continuous run.
• The reading for temperature was taken by PT-100
sensor. And the readings of weight to find moisture
removal rate was taken with a digital weighing scale.

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Experimental Setup

Fig. 5 The actual experimental setup.

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 SENSORS USED
• The reading for temperature
was taken by PT-100 sensor.
• Thermocouple PT-100 is RTD -
or Resistance Temperature
Detectors - is a temperature
sensor that contain a resistor
that changes resistance value as
its temperature changes.

Fig.6 Thermocouple PT-100

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 CALCULATIONS
• Formula for the calculation of solar radiation (W/m^2):
360 ∗ 𝑛
𝐼 = 𝜏𝑎 + 𝜏𝑏 ∗ 𝐼𝑠𝑐 ∗ 1 + 0.033 ∗ 𝑐𝑜𝑠 ∗ 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝜓 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝛿 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝜔 + 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝜓 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝛿
365

• Overall efficiency of the solar air heater:

actual heat transfer h To − Ta
ηoverall = =
incident radiation I∗A
Here,
h= Convective heat transfer coefficient(W/m^2.k).

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EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION
OBSERVATION TABLE
Reading Time Outlet temperature Ambient temperature
no.
1 12:15 70 36
2 12:45 72 36
3 13:15 70 37
4 13:45 73 37
5 14:15 75 38
6 14:45 72 38
7 15:15 72 37
8 15:45 73 37
9 16:15
Table 71 readings on 8th April38
1. Output temperature
2017 25
EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION
OBSERVATION TABLE
Reading Time Weight
no.
1 10:10 2550
2 10:40 2500
3 11:10 2440
4 11:40 2390
5 12:10 2320
6 12:40 2260
7 13:10 2190
8 13:40 2130
9 14:10 2080
10 14:40 2020
11 15:10 1990
12 15:40 1960
13 16:10 1960
14 16:40 1950
Table .2 Moisture removal readings
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 EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION
OBSERVATION TABLE
Reading no. Time Change in temperature 𝜂𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑙 %

1 12:15 34 56.06

2 12:45 36 59.36

3 13:15 33 54.44

4 13:45 36 59.36

5 14:15 37 61.01

6 14:45 34 56.06

7 15:15 35 57.51

8 15:45 36 59.36

9 16:15 35 57.71

Table .3 Overall efficiency readings

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EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION
GRAPH

Graph 1. O/P TEMP. VS Time

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EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION
GRAPH

Graph 2. Overall Eff. VS Time 29

EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION
GRAPH

Graph 3. Mass reduced VS Time 30

 RESULTS
The summary of the results obtained in the experimental testing
and from calculation are as follows:
1.Actual mass of Sapota placed inside the dryer chamber: 800gm
2.Total mass of moisture removed from the fruit: 600gm
3.Percentage of moisture removed: 75%
4.Overall efficiency of the solar air heater: 54 – 62 %
5.Efficiency of the fins on the absorber plate: 93%
6.Effectiveness of the fins on absorber plate: 80
7.Total incident solar radiation: 977.32W/m2
8.Maximum temperature achieved at outlet: 75oC
9.Total time required for the drying process: 6 hrs. 30 minutes.

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 FUTURE SCOPE
 The setup that we design was based on the dryer application. The solar
air heater can be designed for different applications such as room
heaters, substitute for food storage facility where dry air is required.
 The solar air heater was design by using Vee- shaped fins, we can also
try parallel rectangular fins, horizontal cylinders (Cans), baffle type fins
etc.
 The solar air heater uses double glazing or glasses to trap more heat
inside, we can use single glazing or multiple number of glazing
depending on the required solar efficiency.
 The absorber plate of the solar air heater was made of aluminum of
Gauge 22 size. We can change the thickness of the aluminum or change
the material to copper or higher conductive material.
 The solid absorber plate can be replaced by the layers of wires mesh.

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 REFERENCES
[1].Sumeet Shekhar, Prayasa Rai,e.t.a.l. “Comparative study of thermal efficiency of
artificially roughened solar air heater”, Journal of Energy Research and Environmental
Technology, volume 1, PP 26-32, November 2014.
[2].Raheleh Nowzari, L.B.Y. Alddabbagh,e.t.a.l. “Experimental study on double pass solar
air heater with mesh layers as absorber plate”, International Journal of Electronics:
Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, volume 3,Num-4,pp. 673-682.
[3].G.M.Ganjyal e.t.a.l., “Processing of sapota (sapodilla) =powdering” , Journal of Food
Technology, volume 3, pp.326-330,2005.
[4].Irfan Kurtbas , Emre Turgut, “Experimental investigation of solar air heater with free and
fixed fins = efficiency and energy loss” , International Journal of Science and Technology,
volume-1,no.-1,pp.75-82,2006.
[5].RajkumarK. , e.t.a.l. , “Design and thermal analysis of solar plate collector with and
without porous medium” ,International Journal of Innovation Research in Science,
Engineering and Technology, volume 4, special issue 2, pp.447-457, February 27th and
28th.
[6].Anand Bisen ,Rajeev Jain ,P.P. Dass, “Parametric study of top heat loss coefficient of
double glazed flat plate solar collectors” ,MIT International Journal of Mechanical
Engineering, volume-1 No.2,pp.71-78, 2 August 2011.

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